Quote Originally Posted by Jojoya View Post
I never said it was 100% story. Some games are better at certain things than other games. Pick the game right for your mood. If someone thinks GW2 is better at combat and combat is what they want, then they should be playing GW2.

If you want access to your full toolkit, the simple solution is to do content your level instead of content that requires you to level sync. You're still going to get XP and tomestones as appropriate. You're also going to get a chance at gear for your level.

Almost everyone has a core kit at 50. Everyone has a set of single target attacks. Most have a set of AoE attacks (I would agree that those who don't have the second part of their AoE combo should get them at 50). That is a core kit - the basic attacks. The things that enhance those kits to make them their most powerful and interesting need to come at advanced levels. If you give them too soon, the player gets just as bored of never getting any thing new and interesting for the last 30+ levels. That was a problem I had with WoW following changes they started making in WoD. I don't want to see that happening here.
The problem is not that other games do combat better, ffxiv has good combat at end game. Its just that it takes too long to progress, and as far as I can tell there is no good story reason for that, because at the end of ARR you've achieved enough to warrant having a strong character. But I would not advocate for frontloading everything and having nothing from 50-80, just that the progression starts out fast and pans out as your character grows (kind of like in real life) and don't have a weird bump mid game like for example the Dragoon. And its not like all jobs got a ton of new skills in the level span of ShB, but that didn't stop people from playing. Summoner only got the phoenix, which is essentially just a fire version of bahamut, and they are everywhere.

Also I do not agree with your definition of the core kit. A jobs core should be a defining mechanic of your job, not the basic attack chain.